Grant's study Flashcards
(40 cards)
What was the aim of Grant’s study?
To investigate the effect of context dependent memory on both recall and recognition for meaningful information (not word lists)
What is context dependent memory?
Suggests that memory is improved if the environment that the learning takes place in is the same as the environment where the memory is recalled
what was the hypothesis of Grant’s study?
Context dependent memory will benefit recall memory but not recognition
What is recall memory?
When you have to remember information with no prompts
What is recognition memory?
A way of remembering where you recognise the answer from a list
What are the research methods of Grant’s study?
Lab experiment
Independent measures
What was the background to Grant’s study?
Godden & Baddeley - deep divers study
Outshining hypothesis - context dependent memory will benefit recall but not recognition tasks because the recognition items ac as such strong retrieval that they ‘outshine’ environmental context and cues
What was the sample of Grant’s study?
39 people ranging from 17 to 56 years old, 17 females and 22 males
How was the sample collected in Grant’s study?
8 Psychology students from iowa state university acted as experimenters - they each recruited 5 acquaintances to participate (opportunity sampling)
How was recall measured in Grant’s study?
10 short answer open questions
How was recognition measured in Grant’s study?
16 Multiple choice questions
What were the test conditions in Grant’s study?
Matching: Silent - silent, noisy - noise
Mismatching: Noisy - silent, silent - noisy
What was the procedure of Grant’s study?
Participants read through a two-page academic article on psychoimmunology while wearing a pair of headphones - half of them did this in silence, and the other half listened to background noise from the university cafeteria.
They then completed a test of memory on what they had read. Again, they were split and half listened to background noise while the others were in silence
Between these they had a two minute break
Why were participants given a two minute break in between reading and recalling/recognising in Grant’s study?
so that they weren’t being tested on short term memory.
What were the results of the recall part of Grant’s study?
Silent-silent = 6.7
Silent-noisy = 4.6
Noisy-silent = 5.4
Noisy-noisy = 6.2
What were the results of the recognition part of Grant’s study?
Silent-silent = 14.3
silent-noisy = 12.7
noisy-silent = 12.7
noisy-noisy = 14.3
What were the conclusions found in Grant’s study?
Both recall and recognition is better when the context matches - participants recalled significantly more information about the article when the study and test conditions matched then when they did not.
How is it possible to explain the fact that context-dependent effects have been reliably found for recall tasks but not recognition tasks?
The ‘outshining’ hypothesis suggested that recognition items themselves act as such strong retrieval cu4s that they overshadow the relatively weak contribution of environmental context cues.
Why were participants given an article from an academic book to read, rather than simply being tested on their ability to remember unrelated words?
Because the information is more meaningful and relevant to their day-to-day life.
Why did Grant manipulate the presence or absence of background noise, rather than the presence or absence of background music?
Because different people have different music tastes and so it makes it more realistic for all participants, as they aren’t listening to something unfamiliar
Why was the recall test put first in Grant’s study?
To ensure any information being recalled was from the reading of the text rather than from the multiple choice test.
Why were participants informed of the condition they would be in before testing began?
to get informed consent from participants
How well did Grant do in terms of ethics?
He did very well, pretty much everything was good except potentially deception as they were told it was a comprehension study rather than a memory one.
Was Grant’s study ethnocentric?
yes, as all participants were american and acquaintances of the researchers, so all knew each other
but could be argued that it is species specific